


Miraculous Supercorp

by gacenbgirl



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug, Supergirl (TV 2015), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/F, Homophobia, M/M, Miraculous Ladybug AU, More heroes to come, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Not that that makes it better, Pining, SuperCorp, Unrequited Love, also this first chapter is a lot of set up, black cat lena luthor, but from the bad guys, except for the ones the miraculouses give them, former black cat bruce wayne, former ladybug clark kent, i promise there's an actual story coming, ladybug kara danvers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2020-10-10 11:30:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20527304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gacenbgirl/pseuds/gacenbgirl
Summary: When Kara Zor-el and Lena Luthor start their freshman year at National City Prep, they have no idea how much their lives will change. Though Kara dreams of a world where she can make a difference, and Lena yearns for a loving family, neither expects to have the opportunity thrust into their laps in the form of magical jewelry.But when National City is in trouble, Ladybug and Black Cat will come to its rescue.





	1. Prologue - An Normal Chat on a Normal Day Between Normal Husbands

**Author's Note:**

> Decided to write this at 2am when I realised how much I love supercorp and the love square...  
hope you like it

Clark Kent liked to get up early. He was a farm boy, after all.  
Bruce Wayne liked to get up earlier. Partially because running a multi-billion dollar company required long hours, and partially because he knew it drove his husband crazy. They’d been married sixty years, but Clark always got the same look on his face when he’d come downstairs for breakfast and see Bruce already nursing a coffee over the morning paper. It was the same face children made when they were promised a snack and then given vegetables. And Bruce would know; he’d spent quite a bit of time around kids, what with all the mentorship programs he took part in, and the daycares he funded, and the scholarships he gave out.  
Still, that sour face always faded away when Bruce passed him the sections of the paper he’d finished with, and they’d sit together at the kitchen table reading. Like always, it was silent, except for when Clark would murmur something about a reporter burying the lede in the story he was reading and how the students who worked on the newspaper he published at the school he volunteered at could do better. It made Bruce smile, morning after morning.  
But this morning was different.  
This morning, Bruce was not the first one in the kitchen. Clark was still snoring away upstairs, but there were two tiny figures, one sitting on the counter and twiddling its paws while the other flew circles around the coffee machine, muttering a barrage of curses in several languages as it sputtered and gurgled.  
“Tikki, Plagg, what are you two doing?”  
“Trying to make coffee,” the little black creature answered, banging on the machine with its paw. “But this contraption is impossible to use. Cataclysm!”  
“Not again,” Bruce muttered as Plagg touched the coffee maker with its paw, leaving nothing but ash on the counter.  
“Plagg, focus,” the other creature, Tikki, chastised. “We must tell them.”  
“Tell us what,” came a voice from behind Bruce. He turned to see Clark, still in his sleep shirt and boxers, standing in the doorway, somehow looking both half-asleep and concerned at the same time.  
“It’s time…” Tikki began… “ for us to move to new holders. The moth miraculous, one of the jewels we’d believed to have been destroyed, has been activated. But its energy is dark; someone is using it for evil. With the powers of that miraculous, this person could create supervillains that could destroy the world.”  
“We need superheroes,” Plagg said, matter-of-factly. “And you two are a little old for that now.”  
“Old! I’m only eighty-three! And Clark’s eighty-one!”  
“Exactly babe, we can’t go running around jumping off of rooftops and playing parkour like it’s still the eighties. If we try to fight one of these villains, my lucky charm would probably end up being a cane or a walker.”  
Bruce sank down into a chair. After a moment of silence, he spoke.  
“So, what, we’re just supposed to give you away? What if these new heroes can’t handle it? What if they freak out at the sight of the tiny flying things that come out of their jewelry or they decide to reveal their identities to the world for fame and fortune or--  
“--or decide that black cats are stupid and they’d rather dress like bats,” Plagg interrupted.  
“What?” Clark asked.  
“When Brucey here first got the ring, he didn’t want to be Chat Noir. He wanted to be a bat. You know, the kind Dracula can turn into. Luckily, I charmed him into saving the world dressed as a much cooler creature.”  
Clark wanted to be supportive of his husband, he really did, but this was the first he’d ever heard of this. The thought of his husband, Bruce Wayne, dressing up like a bat to fight crime was too funny. He couldn’t hold back his laughter.  
“Well, exactly,” Bruce sputtered. “I was young and stupid back then, but these kids are even stupider than I was, with their heads in virtual reality and the rest of their technology broadcasting every bit of information about them to the whole world. I mean there are smart fridges now! Who the hell needs a smart refrigerator?”  
“Bruce, you own four companies that make smart refrigerators.”  
Sixty years of marriage will teach a person a lot of things. It will teach them how to work together, how to anticipate their partner’s needs, and how to find contentment in monotony. It will also teach them when to admit to their partner that they were right.  
“Yeah, you got me there,” Bruce chuckled.


	2. Chapter 1 - Superheroes Wanted! (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara Zor-el’s first day of high school had been a doozy. It had started with an extremely embarrassing late entrance into her first class after her foster sister (Eliza and Jeremiah’s biological daughter) had turned off her alarm clock and ended with detention. Oh, and in between she’d become a superhero courtesy of some magical earrings.  
So, a real doozy, to say the least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks to everyone who read the last chapter, here comes the actual story part  
also special thanks to Castiel1897 for being the first person to comment on my very first fic

Kara was late. She’d only had three goals for her first day of school, and now she’d failed one of them! And it wasn’t even 8 o’clock yet!

  1. Make some friends
  2. Impress Mr. Kent with her story and her middle school writings and become a reporter for the National City Prep Gazette
  3. Don’t be late or call a teacher mom or do anything else that could cause a scene.

But she was definitely late. The bell had rung while she was circling the grounds looking for an unlocked gate. Despite National City being ranked one of the safest cities in America, the school board still felt it necessary for there to be only one entrance onto the school grounds.  
When she finally got past the tall fence and inside the school, Kara was already almost ten minutes late.  
The woman at the front desk was really nice, though. She assured Kara that this happened all the time, and that her teacher would have no problem with her as long as this didn’t become a habit. And she wrote Kara a late pass and sent her on her way.  
On her way turned out to be up a mountain of stairs. Kara loved to exercise-- she really did-- but this was too much even for her. It was one hell of a leg workout, and by the time she reached the fourth floor, she was disheveled and slightly red-faced.  
She peered in through the window in the door, watching rows upon rows of students turn to stare at her. When she turned her gaze to the front of the classroom, the teacher was glaring at her.  
Mr. J’onzz was not as understanding as the woman at the front desk had said he’d be. He curtly accepted her late pass and handed her a syllabus, warning her that excessive tardiness would be cause for him to give her detention.  
“Oh, and Ms. Zor-el,” he continued as she made her way to an open seat in the back of the room, “showing up late on the first day doesn’t exactly make a good first impression. Why don’t you take a seat in the front, where I’ll be able to keep a better eye on you.”  
Kara wanted to protest. There was only one other empty seat in the room, the one next to Alex in the second row, and she was 99% sure Alex would miraculously harness some kind of godly wrath and smite her if she took that seat. But it’s not like she could say that to Mr. J’onzz.  
So Kara trudged back to the front of the room and took the seat next to Alex, watching her foster sister visibly seethe, rage emanating from her like shimmers of heat off blacktop in the summer. And when the bell rang, Kara practically sprinted away from Alex and out the door, almost colliding with a dark haired girl in a blue dress.  
Kara’s classes passed quickly after that. She made sure to head straight to each classroom, not wanting to chance being late again. Everything was going smoothly, considering the rocky start to the day. Alex wasn’t even in any of her other classes, although they did have the same lunch period.  
Sixth period was the last lunch period of the day, so by the time it came around, Kara was starving. She loaded up her tray with as much food as the free lunch program would allow, and used a dollar of her allowance to add a cookie to her meal.  
Once she was through the lunch line, it came time for the most important decision of the day, where to sit in the cafeteria. She hadn’t really made any friends yet, most of her classmates just interested in chatting with their friends and catching up with people they hadn’t seen since May. And sitting with Alex was out, Mr. J’onzz’s class had put the final nail in that coffin. There was a monitor posted at the cafeteria door making sure that no food left the cafeteria, so she couldn’t even take her lunch to the library or hide in a bathroom stall with it.  
That left Kara with one option, sitting alone.  
She kept her head down as she weaved through the tables, looking for anywhere devoid of students. There was one table that was only about half full, towards the middle of the cafeteria. As Kara got closer, she realized it was because someone in one of the last lunch periods had spilled their food all over three of the four empty seats on one side. How they’d managed to get one serving of sauce and a small handful of noodles spread so solidly over such a wide area was a mystery to Kara, but she took the seat across from the mess anyways.  
All the food on the table didn’t leave much room for her tray, much less anything else. So she got up and left her food to go get napkins-- a lot of napkins.  
But when Kara got back, her tray had been overturned, directly into the mess. Her sandwich had been smeared across the table and her cookie was sitting in the biggest pile of leftover food, practically floating on the sauce.  
That was when she noticed Alex at the next table over, laughing with a bunch of other girls, including the one in the blue dress she’d almost knocked out leaving Mr. J’onzz’s class that morning. They were behind this. They had to be.  
"What is wrong with you," she screamed at Alex, stalking over.  
"Holy shit, what's your problem," Alex asked.  
"Yeah, you seriously need to chill," one of Alex's friends, a tan girl with long brown hair said.  
Kara did not chill. In fact, she did the opposite of chill.  
“Look, I get that you don’t like me. But do you really have to do so much to make me miserable. I didn’t ask for my parents to die! I didn’t ask for your parents to foster me! And I certainly didn’t ask for you as a sister!”  
“Enough,” an aide’s voice cut through their screams. “This is not how high schoolers behave. Call your parents and tell them you’ll be home late, because now you’ve all got detention.”  
The other girls groaned and pleaded with the aide, but Kara just stood there.  
She knew the rules of being a foster kid, nine times out of ten it was one strike and you’re out. Part of her was relieved, she’d be saying goodbye to Alex forever. But there was another part of her that ached for the could-have-been-home that she was about to lose. Eliza and Jeremiah were kind. They’d tried to get to know her, sent her to this great school, and even given her an allowance.  
She remembered, on her first night in the Danvers’ house, Eliza had come home early and Jeremiah, who worked the night shift, had taken off, and they’d ordered enough Chinese food to feed an army. Chinese was Kara’s favorite. She didn’t know if it was a coincidence, or if they’d asked her social worker what she liked, but she had a gut feeling that it was the latter. So, while she wouldn’t miss Alex, she’d miss feeling welcome, sort of.  
It wasn’t until halfway through her last class that Kara realized detention would mean she’d have to miss the first meeting of the National City Prep Gazette. Being a reporter, studying under and working for Clark Kent-- the Clark Kent, first openly gay Pulitzer Prize winner-- was her dream. And if there was any chance that the Danvers' weren’t going to ship her off to another family, she had to make sure she got on that paper’s staff.  
So a few minutes before the end of the school day, she asked Ms. M’orzz for a bathroom pass. She took her bag with her, sighting female troubles as her reason why, and booked it to the library, where the first meeting of the National City Prep Gazette was to be held.  
Inside, Mr. Kent-- it was really him, Kara’s idol, in the flesh!-- was chatting with the librarian, an elderly black man in a crisp suit. Kara took a deep breath, ignoring the churning of her empty stomach since she never did get to eat anything at lunch, and walked up to them.  
“Mr. Kent?” She barely waited for him to turn around and acknowledge her before continuing. “I’m sorry to burst in on you like this, and I know the first meeting of the Gazette doesn’t technically start until after school, but something… unexpected came up and I won’t be able to make it. So I just wanted to introduce myself and say that if you ever need a reporter, I’m your girl. Hi. I’m Kara Zor-el.”  
Mr. Kent didn’t even startle, turning around and peering out from behind his glasses at her.  
“Hello Ms. Zor-el, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” He extended his hand and she shook it, squeezing hard, hoping to make a good first impression.  
“Wow. M’yrnn, this girl has quite a handshake,” he told the librarian, smiling brightly.  
“Ah, a promising young reporter, then,” M’rynn said, taking a sip of his coffee.  
“So, if you don’t mind me asking,” Mr. Kent started, “what’s this unexpected emergency? You didn’t get detention did you?”  
Kara’s gaze dropped to the floor.  
“Yeah, actually I did. My foster sister is out to get me.”  
“Your parents foster? You know, I was in the system for a while before I was adopted. Maybe this girl just needs a friend.”  
“Well, technically, I’m the one that needs a friend. I’m the foster sister, but there isn’t really a word specially for your foster parents biological daughter, so I just call her my foster sister.”  
Just then the bell rang, signalling the end of their conversation and the beginning of Kara’s detention.  
“I guess I should go,” Kara sighed. “Being late for detention is probably frowned upon.”  
“Wait, Kara. Most of this first meeting is going to be writing exercises so I can get an idea of everyone’s style. Why don’t you take this, write something describing it, and email it to me.”  
He handed her a small wooden box and a business card.  
“Are you sure you want me to take this? I could give you my email and you could send me a picture of it--”  
“Don’t worry. You can get it back to me at the next meeting, reporter.”  
At that point, other students had started filing into the library, so Kara figured she had better get to detention. Luckily, Vice Principal Baker’s office was right down the hall.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a garden…  
"Nooroo, transform me!"  
The figure in the garden was distorted by a flesh of purple light, and when it faded, a super villain stood in her place.  
She closed her eyes and let her consciousness expand, reaching out to the emotions of all the people of National City. She ignored the pleasant ones-- contentment, joy, love-- focusing on finding the perfect negative emotion.  
And then she sensed it. There was a boy. He felt rejected and betrayed, angry and scared. He held a crumpled piece of paper in his hand, on which someone had scrawled three letters in pencil. The word they formed was an abbreviation, but despite its stature it was still bullying, a hate crime even. Not that the boy would be able to do anything without outing himself.  
So the woman in the garden, Hawkmoth, summoned a butterfly into her outstretched hand. She concentrated and filled it with the power to help this child, and watched with fascination as its wings turned from an almost translucent white into a deep, dark purple.  
"Fly away, my little akuma. Let us help this poor soul."  
And fly away the butterfly, now akuma, did. It flew to National City Preparatory Academy, where it flit through a window and landed on the piece of paper in the boy's hand.  
His face turned red, and then the woman was speaking to him in his mind.  
"Jack, my name is Hawkmoth. Those other boys, they don't understand what it's like to be different, to have to hide one's heart. I will give you the power to bring them to their knees, to take control of your circumstance and inflict your punishment on any you see fit. And when the time comes, you will repay the favor."  
"Whatever you say,"Jack said, slamming his locker door shut.  
A few of the other students in the hall turned at the sound, just in time to see a cloud of darkness engulf him.  
"You shall be Stoneheart," Hawkmoth said.

* * *

But as she opened the door to the office, a barrage of screams echoed down the hall. Principal Marsdin and Vice Principal Baker both emerged from their offices and into the waiting room.  
“Get in here, and lock the door,” Principal Marsdin told Kara, but Vice Principal Baker pushed past her.  
“I’m going to go see what’s going on,” he announced, rushing out into the hall. He disappeared towards the sound of the screams as Principal Marsdin pulled Kara inside and locked the door. She brought Kara and the secretary into her office, locking that door behind them too.  
But while the two older women were looking out the windows for gunmen or knife wielders, Kara was looking at the security camera feed pulled up on the principal’s computer.  
The screen was broken up into eight different camera feeds, but it was a large enough monitor that Kara could clearly see the giant stone monster smashing lockers in one of the hallways.  
It was enough to make Kara drop the box that Mr. Kent had given her, which landed on the other side of the principal’s desk. As it landed on the floor, it let out a burst of red light.  
When she went to retrieve it, Kara came face to face with something even stranger than the stone beast, a floating… stuffed animal?  
It was small, about the size of Kara’s palm, and vaguely humanoid, with big blue eyes set in an even bigger head. Its skin was red, except for a large black spot on its forehead. Oh, and it could talk.  
Kara discovered that when it shushed her and flew to her hand, grabbing one finger in its little… paws?... and pulling her behind the desk.  
“You need to get out of here,” the flying, taking, almost alive stuffy whispered. “We need a safe place for me to introduce you to your powers.”  
“Powers?” Kara whispered, intrigued.  
Intrigued enough to grab the box Mr. Kent had given her off the floor and run out of the office, anyways. She ran to the stairwell across the hall, taking the stairs two at a time until she was at the basement level, which she hoped would be deserted.  
The little red creature had disappeared when she’d closed the box, but opening it made the sentient plushie appear in a flash of red light again.  
“We don’t have much time,” the thing said, before beginning its explanation of what it was, and what Kara could do with it.  
The creature told Kara it was a kwami, a magical being that could inhabit special jewels to grant the wearer super powers. The earrings in the box, one example of these jewels, were called a miraculous. With them, the wearer had the power of creation. They could summon objects to help defeat villains using a power Tikki called the lucky charm, and purify evil with their magic.  
She would also have a partner, Tikki told her, someone with the power of destruction.  
“So, how do I… activate you?”  
“Just say “transform me!”  
“Okay,” Kara said, forcing the studs through her long closed holes. “Tikki, transform me!”  
Kara was engulfed in red light, and when the spots cleared from her vision, she was a superhero. She looked down, taking in her costume. Tikki had good taste, Kara had to give it that. Her outfit was all black, except for a gold belt and her red cape. She swished the fabric a bit, noticing black spots like a ladybug’s on the outside of it.  
Well, ladybugs were supposed to be good luck. And judging by the sound of screaming still coming from upstairs, Kara could use a bit of luck.  
In her hand was a yoyo… her weapon, Kara supposed. She flung it up the middle of the stairwell and it wrapped around the railing a few floors up, rocketing her to the third floor landing. Okay, that was awesome.  
She rushed out of the stairwell and into the hall, running to the closest window. Outside, the monster was attacking, leaving students and staff to run helplessly for cover. Kara had to get down there. She wondered if her yoyo could break glass.  
The answer was yes.  
Once out the window, she flung her yoyo into a tree and swung into its branches. From her new vantage, she could see that the creature wasn’t so big, only about eight or nine feet tall. It was currently pulverizing a school bus with a bunch of kids on it.  
Kara didn’t wait for her partner, or for the police, or even to make a plan. She flung out her yoyo, watching it wrap around one of the monster’s arms, and flung herself onto the school bus.  
“Hey, big guy! Why don’t you pick on someone your own size!”  
“Is that supposed to be you,” the monster asked, flicking Kara off the bus. She flew through the air, landing in the driveway and skidding to a stop against a parked car. Its alarm went off, startling everyone, including the creature, for a moment.  
“You’ll never defeat me! I am Stoneheart!”  
“Come on cape girl! Get back out here,” a voice, Alex’s voice, yelled. Kara scanned the crowd, and found her foster sister standing at the foot of the beast, brandishing her text book like a weapon. She swung it into Stoneheart’s ankle with a fierce screech.  
Unfortunately, this not only made the monster mad, it also made it grow. A bright light appeared around it and suddenly it was more like twelve feet tall, and proportionately wider too. It bent down, grabbing Alex in one fist and using the other to slam down onto the bus.  
The driver’s seat was flattened. Luckily, it seemed that someone had gotten the emergency exit at the back of the bus open and the students and driver were evacuating.  
Kara pushed herself up and ran back into the fight, so focused on the monster she didn’t even see the girl in the black cat suit until she collided with her.  
“Go, get to safety…” they both started saying, before noticing each other’s costumes. The other girl was dressed in black from her thick boots to the cat ears, each one pierced with at least three small gold hoops. She also had multiple piercings in her real ears, and a small ring around her lower lip. Her dark hair was tied in a long braid, and she had a black mask over her eyes. She was definitely another superhero.  
“Well, you must be the partner my kwami told me about,” Kara said. “Nice of you to show up.”  
“Who do you think got those kids out of that bus,” the cat girl retorted. “I was actually saving people while you were getting thrown around.”  
“Touche. I’m Ladybug.”  
“Call me… Chat Noire.”  
Behind them, sirens sounded, signalling the approach of police and firefighters.  
“Well, kitten, it looks like we’ve got an akuma to defeat. And since we can’t hit it without making it bigger, I’d say it’s time to use our powers.”  
“I can destroy stuff, but I only get one shot, so you’d better go first.”  
Kara spun her yoyo directly about her head and shouted “Lucky Charm!” When the yoyo fell back into her hands, so did a… ladle? What was Kara supposed to do with that?  
“Do over,” Chat Noire asked.  
“Not an option, unfortunately.”  
She looked around. The police had put up barriers and were moving people behind them. The fire department had was hooking a hose up to a hydrant and pointing it at Stoneheart, and Alex was still clenched in its fist. But Kara also noticed that Stoneheart’s other fist was clenched as well.  
“He never opens his left fist. That must be where the akuma is!”  
“So how do we get to it, partner? If they start spraying that thing with water it might just keep growing. Fire hoses can shoot water with almost 300psi; that’s a hell of a lot more pressure than smacking it with a textbook!”  
Kara stared at the thing in her hand. Ladles, used for:

  * Serving soup
  * Pirate swords in kitchen utensil battles
  * Eating ice cream after getting dumped
  * Defeating monsters, hopefully?

The ladle was useless. It was the most useless thing her lucky charm could have given her. But she still had to do something. Especially when the firefighters turned their hose on. As the beam of water hit Stoneheart, it was engulfed in light again.  
“Chat Noire, I need you to stop those firefighters. Use your power!”  
She nodded and ran off towards them.  
Kara turned her back on her, swinging her yoyo as she charged at Stoneheart.  
From behind her, she heard her partner scream “cataclysm!” The water immediately stopped flowing, and the light dissipated. Which left a now forty foot tall and super pissed Stoneheart standing with one foot on a school bus and the other on the steps into the building.  
Kara tossed her yoyo, looping it around Stoneheart’s left arm as it started to climb the school. Tension in the string carried her up past the monster and catapulted her onto the roof, where she spotted an air vent, the kind that stretched up out of the roof and bent. If she could get that to blow on Stoneheart, in its glowing eyes, it might topple over. It’s not like it could hold on tightly with both fists closed. And if it did want to hold on, it would have to drop the akuma and Alex.  
The only problem was the vent over the opening. Unless…  
“Why not just give me a crowbar,” Kara muttered as she used the end of the ladle to pry up the panel. She swore she could hear a small giggle from… somewhere… like Tikki was laughing at her. It made her think that lucky charms like this one were going to be the status quo for her super hero career.  
She managed to get the vent off though, just as Stoneheart’s head appeared.  
The stream of air shot into its eyes, and sure enough, Stoneheart let go of Alex and its akuma, scrambling to hold onto the edge of the roof..  
Kara leapt after them, grabbing Alex from midair and tossing her yoyo out so it wrapped around the branch of a tree, carrying them to safety while Stoneheart clung to the roof. She lowered her foster sister safely to the ground, hopping down from the branch after.  
A purple sheet of paper floated towards the ground serenely, like it hadn’t just been the cause of all of this chaos. Kara snatched it out of the air and ripped it in two. The two pieces disappeared, leaving only a black butterfly, but Kara was a bit distracted by the boy left behind where Stoneheart had been, so she didn’t notice it fly away.  
The boy had brown skin, thick black hair, and, once she retrieved him from where he was dangling, an attractive face (8 or 9 out of 10 on Kara’s scale, so probably like a 12 on a straight girl’s scale).  
“Jack,” Chat Noire shouted, rushing over to them.  
“Who are you? What happened to me?”  
“You were akumatized,” Kara told him. “A supervillain used your negative emotions to turn you into a rampaging monster, but you’re okay now. Everyone’s okay.”  
The two superheroes sat with Jack for another moment, talking him through what had happened, until Kara’s earrings started to beep.  
“That’s my cue. I’m about to transform back.”  
“Me too,” Chat Noire said as her ring started emitting the same noise. The two girls stood up.  
"Pound it," Kara said, extending her fist. Her partner bumped it, but as she was pulling back, she grabbed Kara’s hand and kissed the back of it.  
"Until next time, my lady." Then she let go, extended her baton, and disappeared into the cityscape, leaving Kara flushing as red as her cape.


	3. Chapter 2 - Superheroes Wanted (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena Luthor saw high school as a stepping stone; she’d use these four years to prepare for college and beyond, when her real life would begin. At least, until Bruce Wayne (yes, that Bruce Wayne) showed up and entrusted her with a magic ring that turned her into a crime fighting furry. Suddenly, her life had purpose beyond setting the stage for her future. She had evil to defeat, people to save, and a gorgeous partner to make fall in love with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lena's POV this time

A few blocks away from the school, in an alley behind a bakery, Chat Noire disappeared in a flash of green light. And when the light faded, in her place stood Lena Luthor. 

Her kwami, Plagg,floated beside her. It took a moment to adjust to being a corporeal being again, and then it started to laugh.

"What's so funny?"

Plagg floated so that it was eye level with her, bowed and said with mock reverence "my lady." Lena swatted at the creature, but it flew away from her hand making kissy noises. 

"That was the gayest thing I've ever seen. And I've had a lot of gay black cats: Bruce, Julie d'Aubigny, Alexander of Macedon…"

"Julie d’Aubigny was bisexual. Wait… Alexander the Great was a black cat! _ Alexander _ 'reached the ocean and fell upon the sands weeping for there was nothing left to conquer' _ the Great _?"

"Pssh, more like Alexander 'only defeated once and that was by Hephaestion's thighs.' But even he doesn't hold a candle to that display back there."

A bright red blush crept down Lena’s pale skin, from her cheeks to her chest. 

“Just do me a favor,” Plagg said. “If you’re gonna get… frisky… with Ladybug, don’t do it in the suit.”

“Frisky… gross! Plagg, we do not even have time to unpack everything wrong with that sentence right now."

"Right... get me some food," Plagg demanded, flying into the bag on Lena's shoulder and digging around in it. She opened her bagged and grabbed the tiny god of destruction, pulling him out. 

"Sorry, that's not an option right now."

"Oh come on, we're right behind a bakery! Just pop in and get me a cheese danish."

"I can't. Remember, I have detention."

Plagg sighed, but when Lena let go of its tiny body, the kwami flew back into her bag to hide. Lena wanted to hide too, but that wasn't an option for the Luthor girl-- not ever, but especially not today. 

Not when she had an apology to make. 

It had all started with lunch that day. For the first time ever, Lena and her best friend Jess had been scheduled for different lunch periods. Lena knew her mother would have a fit if Lena sat alone at lunch, or skipped it altogether to read in the library; after all, what would people say? So before pre calculus ended, Lena made sure to arrange lunch with Samantha Arias. 

It was Lena's slight act of rebellion. Lena and Sam were friendly, having been in advanced classes together since they’d met in middle school, but a wedge had been driven between them when Sam had come out their last year there. 

It wasn’t that Lena was homophobic-- she herself was a lesbian. But no one knew that, not even Jess. Lena couldn’t trust anyone with her true self. Not with a last name like Luthor. The Luthor clan might be best known for the technological advancements of Lena’s grandfather Lex Luthor, but her mother Lillian had made quite a name for herself as a conservative lobbyist. Lillian spoke at NRA conventions. She marched against abortion rights in high heels and pearls. And if she ever found out that Lena was gay, she’d have her on the next private jet to the most luxurious 20’s asylum style conversion therapy center in the country. 

Still, when the choice was between eating lunch alone, or with an out lesbian, Lena knew what her adoptive mother would say was the lesser of two evils. So she took the risk, and met Sam at the entrance to the cafeteria. 

"Lena!"

"Sam!"

"Come on, let's go find Alex."

Alex turned out to be Alex Danvers, Sam's crush of the week. She'd been in the same advanced classes as Sam and Lena, but Lena didn't know her better than that. She found out a lot about her new foster sister that lunch period, though. 

Apparently, Alex's parents had brought the girl home without any warning. Alex had returned home from a day at the beach to find another bed being moved into her room. And while Lena had to admit that being blindsided with a new foster sister wasn't exactly fair, neither was the way Alex was treating this girl. 

The things she talked about doing to this poor girl ranged from petty and mean to downright devious. 

Even worse, Sam was hanging on Alex's every evil word. 

Lena didn't understand how Sam, who'd been adopted herself, albeit when she was a baby, could fawn over a girl who called her foster sister a "treacherous, life-ruining leach." But even that didn't stop Sam from staring at Alex with love stuck doe eyes.

"And she's like, annoyingly pretty for a straight girl, see," Alex added pointing out the girl with a forkful of salad. 

The rest of the girls at the table, including Sam, pointed out that the girl in question wasn't even _that _pretty. She wasn't wearing any makeup, and her baggy clothes certainly weren't doing her any favors. Neither were the thick glasses she wore, the girls said. 

Lena didn't say anything. She recognized Alex's foster sister as the girl who'd been late to her first period class. And while some of what Alex's cronies were saying was true, saying the girl was not pretty was not. 

She was stunning. Sure, she was trying to hide it with her glasses and dowdy clothes, but Lena could see a beautiful face hiding behind the thick glasses. 

"Either way, she still takes too long in my bathroom in the mornings," Alex said. 

"Stupid straight girls," Sam said. "No offense, Lena."

The girls, including Lena, laughed. Lena's was forced, but she'd become proficient in making fake laughter sound real a long time ago and no one noticed a difference. 

But her forced laughter turned to mute outrage when Alex took her foster sister’s unattended lunch tray and overturned it into the mess someone had left on her table. 

Some of them had tried to talk her out of it, tried to get her to stop. Others, like Lena, had been silent with shock and horror. A few had laughed, and Lena mentally added them to her shit list. 

By the time the girl got back with a large stack of napkins, Alex had glared the dissenters into a scene of quiet normality. But the girl wasn’t as stupid as Alex had made her out to be. She marched up to their table and asked Alex point blank what was wrong with her.

“Holy shit, what’s your problem,” was Alex’s response. 

That was when the shouting really started. Even Sam chimed in, taking Alex’s side for some reason Lena couldn’t fathom. As she was trying to work it out-- had Sam been brainwashed? was she secretly a horrible person? was this some ride or die bullshit?-- a cafeteria aid appeared. 

Lena wanted to say something. She wanted to help this girl, but, for the first time ever, when she opened her mouth no words came out. And that was how Lena Luthor got detention on her very first day of high school. Though serving her sentence proved to be a bit of a challenge.

Lena didn’t call Lillian to let her know she’d gotten detention. She was sure the woman would find some way to get her out of it, probably by donating another Olympic-sized swimming pool, all to keep the family reputation shining. Not to mention, she felt guilty. That poor girl just wanted to belong somewhere, and Alex had gone to war with her. And all the while, Lena had sat by and done nothing, not even said a word. She deserved much worse than detention, she knew. She wasn’t about to have Lillian buy her way out of it. 

So when she walked into her eighth period Advanced Business Practices class and saw Bruce Wayne standing at the front of the room in her peripheral vision, it was the first time since the lunchtime incident that she’d picked her head up all the way. Lena knew Bruce, of course. Between the two of them, Luthor Corp and Wayne Enterprises owned more of the market than four Disney’s; it was only natural that they’d have dealings with each other. Even if those dealings were kept strictly professional and to a minimum, since Lillian wanted to shield Lena from Bruce’s “alternative lifestyle.”

Lena took a seat in the front row, listening as Ms. Grant introduced Bruce-- Mr. Wayne, she called him-- to speak to the class about the importance of ethics in business. It seemed like an odd choice for the first day of class, but Lena rolled with it, letting herself soak up the knowledge of the greatest (and openly gayest) businessman of all time.

And when the bell rang, Lena decided it would be rude of her not to at least say hello to her family’s business associate. She took her time packing up her laptop as the rest of the students exited the classroom and Bruce thanked Ms. Grant for letting him speak to her classes. 

Her exit was timed perfectly, Bruce reaching the door two seconds before her and holding it open. 

“Thank you, Mr. Wayne.”

“...Miss Luthor, I didn’t bore you too much.”

“Not at all. I enjoyed your lecture immensely. I’m not sure everyone in my family would agree with me, but, personally, I agree with you at least ninety-eight percent.”

“Ninety-eight percent?”

“Ethics are all well and good, but, if you’ll excuse the cliche, sometimes you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette. And when the omelette is a breakthrough in biochemistry that cures cancer, I’d argue that the loss of a few eggs is worth it.”

“I guess that depends on what entails breaking an egg in your metaphor,” Bruce countered. But before Lena could respond, his phone buzzed. “Excuse me, I should take this.”

The older billionaire pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned away, starting to walk down the hall as he spoke. But when he pulled his phone out of his pocket, something else slipped out: a small carved wooden box. The sound it made when it hit the floor was almost deafening in the silent hallway, but Bruce didn’t even turn back around. 

Still, with the ethics lesson and the guilt over lunchtime’s incident on her mind, Lena picked up the box and rushed down the hall after Bruce, ignoring the bell. 

“Mr. Wayne, you dropped this.”

He turned back to her and, noticing the box in her hand, told whoever it was on the phone that he’d have to call them back. He stared at the box she was holding out, a small metal latch the only thing keeping it shut and the secrets it held from being revealed. 

“Thank you, Lena. Not everyone would have done that.” He spoke the words slowly; Lena could practically see the gears turning in his mind. “But I think you should keep it. The contents of that box need a good home, and I think you might just be it.”

Lena’s curiosity got the better of her, and instead of responding, she flicked the latch and opened the box. Bruce Wayne shouted out in surprise as a ball of green light rose from the box, solidifying into a small, cat-like figure. 

The creature stretched its tiny limbs and yawned, while Lena inched closer to where it floated, eyes wide with wonder. 

“Got anything to eat?”

“It talks? Fascinating.”

“Well, I guess now is as good a time as any for introductions,” Bruce said. “But maybe not here.” 

He grabbed the floating cat thing in his fist and motioned for Lena to follow, leading them into an alcove of lockers. When he released it, the creature muttered something about indignities and bonked Bruce on the forehead with it’s tiny paw.

“Plagg, this is Lena. She’s going to be taking over for me. Try not to be a brat.”

“How dare you? I’m not a brat. You’re just a dumb old man.”

“I’m not that old!”

The cat thing, Plagg, apparently, and Bruce kept arguing as Lena studied the pair, until she couldn’t contain all of her questions any longer.

“Mr. Wayne, what is this thing? Is it alive? Or AI? Or is it a very advanced child’s toy prototype? And what do you mean taking over for you?”

Bruce opened his mouth to speak, but the creature beat him to it.

“Hey, I’m Plagg and I’m gonna be your kwami. Got anything to eat?”

At that point, Bruce jumped back in, quickly explaining his super hero past and how Plagg and its ring was the source of his powers. He told Lena what those powers were, and how they worked. He said he'd had a partner, and she would as well. And he told her she could be a super hero. She could wear a mask and become someone new, someone who wasn't curtailed by the expectations their name and reputation placed on them. 

Lena put on the ring. 

Bruce handed her a sleek black business card, telling her to reach out for help if she ever needed it, and said goodbye, scratching Plagg under its chin before disappearing down the hall. 

Plagg flew into Lena's bag without another word. Lena was about to go too, off the principal's office to serve her sentence, when a scream distracted her. 

She ducked back into the alcove and opened her bag, meeting Plagg's big green eyes with her own. 

"Sounds like your kind of thing?"

"Yup," the kwami said. 

"Okay then. Plagg, transform me!"

A flash of green light engulfed Lena, and when it faded, she was a super hero. 

She grabbed the golden baton of her hip and ran towards the scream, hearing the thick soles of her boots clomp against the tile floor. 

Outside, a stone giant stood on the steps of the school, fists raised. It lowered them over and over again on the front of a school bus, full of students cowering in the back. 

Lena made a beeline for the back of the bus, and kicked in the back door. The students and driver rushed towards her, and she offered them her hand to help them down, careful of the claws on the fingertips of her gloves. 

A car alarm went off somewhere in the background. Lena didn't let it distract her. 

"You'll never defeat me. I am Stoneheart," the monster yelled. Lena helped another girl down from the back door of the bus. 

"Come on cape girl! Get back out here," Alex Danvers' voice yelled, before letting out a screech. Lena looked up just in time to see Stoneheart light up. And when the light dimmed, it was bigger. And then it grabbed Alex. 

Shit.

Lena did a quick sweep of the part of the bus that wasn't crushed, and then rushed off towards the monster. And she collided with a girl in a cape-- presumably the one Alex had yelled for. 

"Go, get to safety..." they both ordered each other at the same time, before trailing off when they noticed each other's costumes. Clearly this was the partner Bruce had told Lena about. He hadn't mentioned she'd be so pretty, though. 

The girl had long wavy blonde hair and big blue eyes, hidden behind a red and black mask. Her outfit was all black, except for a gold belt and her black spotted red cape. She was stunning, and Lena was gay. 

“Well, you must be the partner my kwami told me about,” the girl in the red and black cape said. “Nice of you to show up.”

“Who do you think got those kids out of that bus,” Lena retorted. “I was actually saving people while you were getting thrown around.”

“Touche. I’m Ladybug.”

“Call me…" Lena thought for a second... "Chat Noire.”

The sound of sirens signaled the approach of the police and firefighters. 

"Well, kitten," Ladybug said with a smile that made Lena's heart flutter, "it looks like we've got an akuma to defeat. And since we can't hit it without making it bigger, I'd say it's time to use our powers."

Adrenaline was rushing though Lena's blood, but she managed to keep a level head. 

"I can destroy stuff, but I only get one shot, so you'd better go first."

Ladybug nodded and tossed her yoyo above her head, shouting the words "Lucky Charm!" And when her yoyo fell back into her hands, so did a red and black ladle.

Lena's brow crinkled. "Do over," she asked, but Ladybug shook her head. 

"Not an option, unfortunately. But, look. He never opens his left fist. That must be where the akuma is!"

Out of the corner of her eye, Lena noticed some firefighters hooking up a hose to a hydrant and pointing it at Stoneheart, who still had Alex clenched in its right fist. 

"So how do we get to it, partner," Lena asked Ladybug. "If they start spraying that thing with water it might just keep growing. Fire hoses can shoot water with almost 300 psi; that’s a hell of a lot more pressure than smacking it with a textbook!”

Then Lena remembered, her power could stop it. 

Ladybug seemed to realize this at the same time, because she ordered her partner to "stop the firefighters!"

Lena rushed off towards them, extending her baton and using it as a pole vault. And when she reached the firefighters, now spraying Stoneheart with water, she shouted "Cataclysm" and watched as a ball of... was that dark energy?... appear in her outstretched hand. She punched the fire hydrant with it, watching the firefighters dismay as the hydrant disintegrated and a geyser of water was left in its place. 

"What the hell do you think you're doing," one of the firefighters demanded. 

"Saving people," Lena answered, summoning the steely tone she reserved for people who treated her like she didn't know what she was doing. "Stoneheart grows when struck by force. How much pressure does that hose produce?"

Like most people faced with the steel spine of a Luthor, the firefighter balked. "About... um... 200-250..."

"More like 300 psi," Lena corrected. "Just a few seconds of that and Stoneheart has to be at least forty feet tall now. Can you imagine what would have happened if I hadn't stopped you?"

The firefighters couldn't meet Lena's eyes. 

"I thought so," Lena said, turning on her heel. 

Even with her role complete, it wasn't until she caught a glimpse of herself in the window of a parked car that she even stopped to take stock of what she looked like. 

Chat Noire wore a skintight leather-like catsuit. A belt wrapped around her waist and extended out behind her like a tail, and there were two black cat ears, each one pierced with several gold rings, on top of her head. Her real ears had quite of a few more piercings than she was used to too. And there was a gold ring around her lower lip. She was happy to see a black domino mask over her eyes, not that anyone in their right mind would have guessed that Lena Luthor was behind it. 

Lena snapped back to reality just in time to see Ladybug rip up a purple piece of paper and the monster turned into a brown skinned boy. 

"Jack!" 

She rushed over to where Ladybug, Alex, and Jack were congregated on the steps of the school. 

"Who are you," Jack asked. "What happened?"

Ladybug explained what had happened, that Jack had been a victim of akumatization, but that she and Chat Noire had made sure everyone was okay. 

But the beeping of Ladybug's earrings and Lena's ring ended their conversation. 

"That’s my cue. I’m about to transform back.”

“Me too.” 

"Pound it," Ladybug said, extending her fist. Lena smiled and bumped it. But as she was pulling back-- and she had no idea why she did this-- Lena grabbed Ladybug's gloved hand and kissed the back of it.

"Until next time, my lady," Lena said. And then she extended her baton and flew away, before anyone could see her flush bright red. She'd landed in the alley behind the bakery. 

And now it was time for Lena to serve her sentence. 

* * *

Meanwhile, in a garden...

Hawkmoth could feel the akuma, still out there in the world. And when it landed on the spire of a tall building and began to multiply, she could sense that too. She'd never imagined it would be so easy, but she would carry out the work her forefather, The Butterfly Effect, had failed to see through. 

The mulitude of butterflies dispersed throughout National City, seeking out negative emotions to exploit. And when they found them, Hawkmoth would have a whole army of Stoneheart's under her command. 

The woman smiled. 

* * *

Lena crept out of the alleyway and onto the street, joining the crowd of spectators who'd been drawn out of their businesses by the arrival of the super heroes and villain. She walked back to the school, hearing people all around her talk about how awesome it was that there were new superheroes in town. 

The last time the world had seen superheroes like this was back when Lena's grandfather was a young man. Superbug and Black Cat (who Lena now knew to be Bruce Wayne) had faced off against a villain who called himself The Butterfly Effect. Their fight had waged for over a decade, until one day The Butterfly Effect had gone underground, never to be seen again. At least, until now. 

Whoever had turned Jack into Stoneheart was using a power too similar to The Butterfly Effect's power for it to be a coincidence. 

Back at the school, the firefighters and city employees had just finished shutting off the water line that ran to the hydrant Chat Noire had destroyed. Cars were lining up in the driveway, and police were directing foot traffic, sending students onto the bleachers beside the football field, parents to a check in point by the track, and nosy citizens back outside the gates. Up by the entrance to the school, the crushed school bus was being loaded onto a tow truck. 

But that wasn't right. 

"Plagg, didn't you say everything would be fixed after we stopped the monster," Lena whispered. 

"Yeah, why?"

"Because it's not."

The kwami poked its head out of Lena's bag, its big eyes taking in the cleanup happening across the schoolyard.

"Ladybug did purify the akuma, right," it asked. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, but the next update should be out a lot faster. Hope this brightens your quarantine!


	4. Chapter 3 - On the Job Training (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For a brief moment, it was like Kara Zor-El was flying. Then it all came crashing down.

By the time Kara returned to the school, no longer transformed into Ladybug, things were mostly cleaned up. The crushed school bus had been towed away, the fire hydrant geyser had been shut off, and most of the emergency services had been replaced with news crews.

Alex was talking to one of them, a woman she recognized as Leslie Willis from the local news. Kara wasn’t really a fan of Leslie’s, and she knew from her time behind the mask that Alex was okay, so she kept her distance from the pair. 

That was when she noticed the ripped piece of paper on the steps of the school. Skirting camera crews, she retrieved it and pieced it back together. 

_ FAG _

That was all it said. 

So much for “a school embracing the rich diversity of its metropolitan location,” or whatever that line from National City Prep’s mission statement was. Kara crumpled the pieces and threw them out.

Eventually, Leslie finished her interview with Alex and the teen joined the throng of students waiting for a parent to pick them up. As that crowd dwindled, Kara found herself inching closer to Alex, whose face was buried in her phone. 

“Um, is one of your parents coming to pick us up?”

Alex looked up from her screen with a glare. “My dad’s on his way,” she said, and then pointed her gaze back to the phone in her hand. 

They waited in silence until Jeremiah arrived. 

His car pulled to a stop with a screech, and he jumped out, not even bothering to turn off the car or even close his door before running and grabbing Alex in a hug. When he let go, to both girls’ surprise, he turned to offer Kara a hug as well. 

But before Kara could even move, a black butterfly landed on Jeremiah’s outstretched arm. One second, he was there, and the next a stone monster stood in his place. It stood there, right where Jeremiah had been, frozen in time. 

“What,” Kara murmured at the same time Alex screamed out “Dad!”

That was when Kara knew she’d screwed up. Oh, she had royally screwed up.

By the time Eliza arrived to pick up the girls, Kara had worked herself into a panic trying to figure out what had gone wrong. She and Chat Noire had defeated the monster and broken the akumatized object. They'd talked down Jack, comforting him and explaining what had happened. How had any of that been wrong?

Alex, for her part, seemed more annoyed by her foster sister’s stress than scared for her father’s life. She spent the entire car ride talking about how she’d faced the monster and been saved by the superheroes, interspersed with glares at Kara in the rear view mirror. 

When they arrived back at the Danvers’ house, Alex immediately turned on the TV to try and find her interview with Leslie Willis. Kara made a beeline for the stairs, going up to her and Alex’s room. 

Eliza followed her, knocking gently on the open door before stepping inside and sitting on the edge of Kara’s bed. She patted the spot next to her, and Kara reluctantly took a seat. 

“I was hoping there’d be three of us having this conversation, but with the state Jeremiah is in, I guess it’s up to me,” she said. “I got a call from the school this afternoon about an incident at lunch.”

Kara hung her head. 

“Now, I know that Alex was involved too. And I know that whatever happened, it was bad enough to warrant both of you being given detention on your first day. You’ll both be serving that sentence tomorrow, by the way. But before I draw any conclusions, I’d like to hear from both of you, one on one. So, what happened?”

Kara didn’t say anything for a moment. But when she reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear, her fingertips brushed against her earring. 

This wasn’t just about her anymore. She was Ladybug now. There were people depending on her, including Jeremiah. She had a job to do, and she couldn’t do that job if her next foster home was across the state.

So she took a deep breath. 

“Someone… tossed my lunch into a pile of garbage. Alex was right there, at the next table over, and I accused her of it. We both started screaming… it got ugly.”

“Oh, honey. I’m so sorry that happened to you.”

“I’m sorry I accused your daughter.”

“Hey, Kara. You’re my daughter too. You’re my foster daughter. Now, I’m going to talk to Alex and then, tomorrow, after school, we’re going to discuss what’s going to happen next. But I don’t want you to worry. Kara Zor-El, you will always have a home here, if you want it.”

Tears pricked the corners of Kara’s eyes, and when Eliza hugged her, they came streaming down her face. 

Both girls went to bed early that night, but neither could sleep. 

Kara tossed and turned, the light from Alex’s phone casting a dull glow on the room as she scrolled through her social media pages. They stayed that way for hours, Kara restless and Alex too worked up to sleep. 

“Holy shit,” she heard Alex whisper from across the room.

Kara sat up, turning towards Alex to see her also sitting up in bed, staring at her phone, shock and horror on her face.

“Jack Spheer-- that kid who turned into Stoneheart-- was just outed!”

“Outed?”

“He’s gay, Kara. And he didn’t tell anybody, but now everyone knows. Look.”

Kara squinted at the screen. It was a picture of Jack, followed by one of a love note, posted by some guy named Otis Graves. But the caption was the worst part. 

_ WARNING: Jack Spheer is a homo. Want proof? Here’s the love letter I found him writing… to a guy! Steer clear of Spheer, the guy’s a raging QUEER!!!  _ 🤮 💩 💣

Suddenly it all made sense. The note Kara had found on the steps of the school, it had been Jack’s akumatized object. All those negative emotions Kara had felt when she’d seen the note-- he must have experienced them tenfold! And now, with his secret out for the entire world to see…

As if on cue, Stoneheart’s bellow cut through the night. 

“Dad,” Alex screamed, rushing from the room. Kara followed her downstairs, where she found her sitting mere inches from the TV. On the screen, a late night news anchor announced that Stoneheart was back, and all the people who had been turned into stone beings had come to life. 

“I… uh… I have to go to the bathroom,” Kara muttered. She ran back upstairs, grabbed Tikki from where it was sleeping in her backpack, and hid in the bathroom, locking the door behind her. 

When she let the little god of creation go, Tikki let out a bleary yawn. 

“What’s happening, Kara,” it asked. 

“Stoneheart is back Tikki! A whole army of Stoneheart’s! I don’t know what I did wrong, but I have to fix it! Alex’s dad got turned into a stone being. Just tell me how to fix it.”

“Kara, it’s alright. You will fix this. You’re a great Ladybug. All you have to do is capture the akuma and purify it. Then everything will be restored back to the way it was.”

“You mean, if I can fix this, Jack won’t have been outed?”

“No,” Tikki said, hanging its head. “People will still remember what happened, but physical damage will be undone. I’m afraid emotions are not quite so easily repaired.”

“Okay… so how do I fix this?”

Tikki explained the process, and Kara hung on her every word, wishing desperately that she had something to take notes with. But as Tikki spoke, the screaming from outside was getting louder. There wasn’t time for Kara to practice. National City needed Ladybug.

“Tikki, transform me!”

Kara, now Ladybug, climbed out the bathroom window, grateful that it was large enough for her to do so and that she didn’t have to sneak through the house in her cape. The Danvers lived in a suburb on the outskirts of National City, but even from there, Kara could see flames rising from the carnage Stoneheart and his army were causing. 

She tossed her yoyo out into the night, in the direction of the fire. 

When Kara got there, Chat Noire was already on the scene, surrounded by stone beings. She artfully dogged between their attacks, careful not to strike any of them back lest it make them grow. 

But where was Jack?

Kara scanned the skyline, spotting a stone being at least four times the size of the rest of the army. That had to be the original Stoneheart.

“Come on Ladybug,” Chat Noire called out from down in the street. “I could really use your help out here!” A stone being slammed its fist down where she’d been standing a second before, as if to emphasize that point. 

Ladybug swung out her yoyo and called down to her partner: “Chat Noire! I know how to fix this. Come on!”

“Perfect timing!”

Chat Noire leapt away from the stone beings and climbed to the rooftop Ladybug stood waiting for her on. As soon as her boots touched down on the roof, Ladybug was off, leaping from building to building with Chat Noire following close behind. 

“So what’s the plan, partner,” Chat Noire asked as they ran towards the akuma. 

“Do it right this time.”

“Sounds simple enough.”

They reached the center of the city, landing on the roof of a swank apartment building. Kara skidded to a stop, and grabbed Chat Noire by her tail when she was about to leap to the next building. Just like before, this Stoneheart had both fists closed. But this time, it was a person in each fist. Both boys looked to be about high school age, one black and one white. 

Neither one seemed to be of much concern to the chief of police though. 

Somehow, he’d procured a tank, which he had pointed at Stoneheart. The balding man was ready to give the signal to fire when Kara dropped down in front of him. Meanwhile, Chat Noire had perched on the end of the arm of the tank, a disapproving glare coloring her expression. 

“You can’t do this,” Kara said. “Stoneheart has hostages. And even if this doesn’t hurt them, it’ll just make him bigger.”

The police chief, a balding old white man, looked down at Kara and laughed. “Listen little girls, why don’t you leave this to the professionals. You’ve already screwed it up once.”

Kara wanted to protest. She wanted to say that she was just trying to help, that she was still learning. But there was a little voice in the back of her head that said that the police chief was right. 

She was the reason that this was happening. If she had just gotten it right the first time, just remembered to purify the akuma, none of this would have happened. Jack wouldn’t be Stoneheart again, Jeremiah wouldn’t be part of Stoneheart’s army, and the two boys wouldn’t be staring down both a super villain and a tank.

“You’re right,” she whispered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 4 - On the Job Training (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena was used to falling. But she knew from experience that the falling wasn’t the important part-- getting back up was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you didn't think I'd leave you hanging for months again, did you?

“No, he’s not,” Lena said, jumping down from her position on the tank and grabbing Ladybug. “You can do this. I know you can do this. And I know you’re the only one who can do this. You’re Ladybug!

“And you,” she said, turning to Chief Sam Lane. “Are you really stupid enough to believe that a tank is going to fix this. This problem is too big for you to point your guns at and blow up. And anyways, Stoneheart has two teenage boys as hostages. Now, you might not care about their lives, but I assure you there are people who do-- people like Ladybug and I. So why don’t you leave this someone with a trace of empathy and emotional intelligence.”

“Miss--”

“The name is Chat Noire. Now if you’ll excuse me, my partner and I have an akumatized victim to save.”

“Victim! That thing is wreaking havoc on this city and you’re calling it a victim.”

\---

Meanwhile in a garden…

“Citizens of National City. I am Hawk Moth. Ladybug and Chat Noire, it’s time for this to end. Give me your miraculouses-- the ladybug earrings and the black cat ring. Don’t let these innocent people suffer any longer.” 

And when she spoke, it echoed out for all of National City to hear. 

\---

“_ He is a victim _,” Ladybug said. “He’s a victim of bullying and now there’s a supervillain around to exploit that. So maybe you’re right, Chief. Maybe this should be left to the professionals. But right now, Chat Noire and I are the closest things this city has. And as for you, Hawkmoth, you’re right that people are suffering. But let’s not get confused here. You’re the one wreaking havoc in this city. And Chat Noire and I are going to stop you. No matter what it takes.” 

And Ladybug turned on her heel and marched away. 

After a second, and another glare at Chief Lane, Lena followed.

Ladybug stood at the foot of a building on fire, staring up the Stoneheart and the two boys. But it appeared the akuma hadn’t noticed her yet. 

“Hey, Otis. Wanna know where the word faggot comes from,” Stoneheart bellowed. 

“Not particularly,” Otis, the white boy in his right hand, screamed back.

“A faggot is a bundle of sticks,” Lena shouted. “They were used to start fires. The kind that they used to burn witches… and gay people. But while the witches were burned at the stake, the gays weren’t seen as good enough for that, so they were thrown directly on the faggots.” 

“And now Otis is gonna burn like a faggot!”

“No, Jack, he’s not,” Ladybug cried. 

“Yes I am,” Otis shouted back. “And then he’ll crush you two and the loverboys can be alone!”

“Love the vote of confidence,” Ladybug muttered. “Wait… of course. When Jack was outed, it was for writing a love letter. I bet that other boy is the guy who he was writing to!”

“Jack was outed?”

“I found the note-- the akumatized object from last time. It said… the f word on it. And just a little while ago, I saw a post Otis-- that Otis I’m guessing-- put on Facebook outing Jack that caused him to be reakumatized.”

“I think I have a plan to distract him,” Lena said. “But when I do, you need to capture the akuma, and purify it.”

“What are you gonna do,” Ladybug asked.

“Something stupid. Good luck.”

Ladybug nodded and tossed her yoyo in the air. “Lucky charm!”

When it fell back into her hands, so did a megaphone.

And then Lena was off and running towards the fire. 

“Hey Stoneheart,” she yelled, “how about picking on someone your own size?”

“Is that supposed to be you?”

“Well, then, how about a trade. You give us those boys, and you can have me to burn. After all, if we’re going back to the source of the word faggot for inspiration, you shouldn’t be burning a dumb straight boy.”

“Did they burn the witches’ cats too back then?”

“Nope, but they did burn gay men and women. So that’s what I’m offering you: 100% Grade A lesbian to burn.” 

And for a second, it was like everything stopped. Lena had said it. She had said she was a lesbian… out loud… in public. Even with the mask, she still felt exposed.

Then the world rushed back into focus. 

“Deal,” Stoneheart said, tossing Otis Graves toward Chief Lane and his tank. All Lena could manage to get out was the word “Ladybug” before Stoneheart grabbed her.

But when Stoneheart held her out over the fire, she saw Ladybug passing Otis off to the police. She’d caught him in time. 

“Burn kitty, burn,” Stoneheart said, dropping Lena into the burning building. 

She held her baton out horizontally over her head, extending it until each end struck a steel column of the burning building. 

“You saved him, but who’s gonna save you?” Stoneheart asked, swinging its hand to swat her down. 

Suddenly, something was wrapped around Lena’s waist. She looked down to see it was the string of Ladybug’s yoyo and pressed the button to contract her baton just as Ladybug yanked her away. 

“I am,” the caped heroine yelled. “And then, together, we’re gonna save you too!”

Ladybug turned to Lena, leaning in close and whispering. “I’m going to get him to drop the boy. His akuma has to be in that hand too. I need you to catch him, and break the akuma.”

Lena nodded, and ran off into position. 

Behind her, the screech of the sirens grew exponentially louder. Then the megaphone clicked on, and the sound somehow got even louder. When Ladybug and the surrounding crowds started screaming, Lena covered her ears. But when she looked up, she saw Stoneheart doing the same, pressing his hands flat against the sides of his head. 

Lena grimaced as she uncovered her ears and leapt under the falling boy, grabbing him bridal style just before he hit the ground. A black cell phone, Stoneheart’s new akumatized object, did hit the ground though, and shattered. 

After putting down the boy, Lena decided to stomp on the phone for good measure. A black butterfly rose out of the crushed phone. And this time, Ladybug caught it. 

“No more evil doing for you little akuma,” Ladybug said, trapping the butterfly in her yoyo. She spun it around and when it opened again, the butterfly’s wings were a pale white.

“Bye bye little butterfly.”

“Oh, right,” Ladybug said. She tossed the megaphone in the air and shouted “miraculous ladybug!” 

As it flew up, the megaphone burst into a cloud of sparkling ladybugs. They spread throughout the sky, circling the carnage left behind in the city. And when they dissipated, everything was as it had been before the Stoneheart attacks. 

“It’s beautiful! It’s amazing! It’s… miraculous!” Ladybug said, her blue eyes shining. _ And all the same could be said about you _, Lena thought. 

But before she could say anything like that out loud, Ladybug’s earrings started to beep. 

“Um, I should go,” she said. 

“I got this,” Lena assured her. She watched as Ladybug swung away into the night. 

Meanwhile, the black boy taken hostage by Stoneheart was checking on Jack. Lena hung back, watching her friend and his crush to make sure there wouldn’t be any more fires to put out. 

“Um, so we should talk,” the black boy said, a hand awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. “It’s not that I don’t like you… it’s just I don’t know you that well.

“So maybe we could get coffee sometime, try to change that.”

Lena watched from the background as Jack’s face lit up. 

“Yeah, yeah, that’d be great, James.”

School was in session the next day. Thanks to Ladybug’s powers, even a super villain attack in the middle of the night couldn’t get it called off. 

Lena coasted through her day, and chose to sit alone in the cafeteria at lunch. 

She didn’t see Alex’s foster sister until detention. Her name was the last on the role call, but Lena still learned it: Kara Zor-El. 

And the whole time she sat in detention, twisting her miraculous on her finger and watching the rain tap against the window panes, she thought about what to say to her. There were no words that could make what she’d stood by and let happen right. She’d known that even before she’d put on the ring. 

After an hour passed, Vice Principal Baker dismissed the girls with a warning that “he’d better not see them back in the detention room anytime soon.” 

Kara was the first one out the door, and Lena followed close behind, while the other girls hung back chatting. She caught up with Kara on the steps of the school, under the overhang. Her driver was waiting in a sleek black car at the foot of the steps. Lena didn’t have long.

“Kara,” Lena said. 

The blonde turned, but when she saw who was talking, she turned back away. 

“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry… about yesterday. I know what it’s like to be the outsider in the family, and it sucks. I shouldn’t have stood by and let that happen to you. So, I’m sorry.”

Kara didn’t respond, and Lena sighed as her driver arrived under the overhang with a black umbrella. 

Lena took the umbrella from him and stepped out from under the overhang, the umbrella over her head. Then she turned back, just in time to see the other girls arrive at the front doors. 

Lena held out the umbrella towards Kara, letting the rain drench her. 

“I really am sorry.”

Kara hesitated for a second, then accepted it. Their fingers brushed each other’s as the umbrella passed between their hands. And then Kara smiled. Lena felt warm inside, even as the rain pelted her. She made no effort to rush to the waiting car, waving to Kara before getting inside. 

“Look at you, ladykiller,” Plagg muttered, poking its head up from inside her bag. 

“What?”

“First Ladybug and now this girl.”

“No Plagg, she’s just a friend,” Lena said with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it wouldn't be a miraculous ladybug au without an umbrella scene


End file.
